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The View From The Ground In Haiti, One Year Later

Posted 1/13/11 2:30 pm EST by in Haiti

Wednesday (January 12) marked the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. MTV News spoke to aid workers who have been toiling in extreme conditions in the impoverished country for the past year, as well as Tulane University medical student Alison Smith, who has made four trips to Haiti since January while providing us with periodic updates on what is happening on the ground.

Smith, 26, gave a sobering description of how things are slowly progressing in Haiti a year later, as the island nation struggles to resettle the nearly 2 million natives left homeless by the quake and deal with nearly 400,000 children orphaned by the natural disaster.

On Wednesday, Smith sent along a report from a friend of hers, Haitian-American Dominique Louis, who is the executive director of Green Children's House, an eco-friendly daycare center in Florida.

"One year after the devastating earthquake that left Haiti on life support, Haiti still remains in critical condition," wrote Louis of his experience in the country as it marked the grim anniversary. "The slow recovery process and the massive loss of life was enough to send the average human being hopeless. But as a Haitian-American and founder of Green Children's House, a non-profit Montessori School located in Pompano Beach, Florida, I have experienced the frustration of the recovery process firsthand. However, that does not discourage me from working to transform the country.

"When I look into the eyes of a Haitian child, I see hopes and dreams that are as real to me as my own children's. Read More...

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Dispatch From Haiti: The Challenges Of A Tent City

Posted 4/12/10 3:30 pm EST by in Haiti

Alison Smith is a medical student at Tulane University who wrote on-the-ground reports from Haiti for the MTV Newsroom Blog in the days and weeks after January's devastating earthquake. She recently returned to the country with a medical team to set up a field clinics in the Central Plateau region and check up on patients in the capital of Port-au-Prince. With the rainy season about to start and more than a million Haitians still displaced, Smith passed along a dispatch from a friend who works with Haitian refugees and just returned from the island.

By Caitlin McHale

Project Esperanza began as a Virginia Tech student organization in 2005 and later evolved into a non-profit. We work to link the Blacksburg, Virginia community with the Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic community through service. I live in Puerto Plata and oversee our programs here, which serve the large Haitian immigrant/refugee population. After the January 12 earthquake, we went with Haitian team members to Port-au-Prince and applied the skills we have developed through our work in Puerto Plata to that situation. Below is the most recent e-mail update I sent to our supporters about those efforts.

We arrived in Port-au-Prince Monday evening (March 29) and met up with Celony, our trusty Haitian team member, who began organizing and mobilizing a tent city in Port-au-Prince in late January along with his brother Geneve.

When we left them in January, we had built a house out of palm leaves that they were to live in and use as a meeting place. The house was also to serve as a place to hold elections among the group leaders to choose one representative for each group of 25 houses (or tents). Unfortunately, after just one meeting and election, the house was overtaken by what Celony referred to as "a group of pot-smoking bandits."

They were now homeless, but luckily ran into a friend from their home town who was a student in Port-au-Prince before the earthquake destroyed his apartment building and university. He works as a public school teacher, but has not received any pay since the earthquake. School was set to open again in Port-au-Prince last week, but no one knew for sure and no official statement or plan had been made.

When I said I thought that government-funded institutions would still pay their employees during the aftermath of the earthquake because the government funds should still be available, they laughed and said that that might happen in a developed country, but in Haiti public school teachers often have to rally and strike just to receive their paychecks.

As we drove through the city, we saw the rubble that was there during our first trip two months ago. Celony and his friend had helped an American church group clean up the rubble of a broken church a few weeks ago, but there doesn't appear to be any leadership over such efforts in the city as a whole.

As for the tent cities, there have been some changes, but mostly just small improvements and nothing that seems headed toward a long-term solution. Read More...

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Dispatch From Haiti: Return To Port-Au-Prince

Posted 4/5/10 1:45 pm EST by in Haiti

Alison Smith is a medical student at Tulane University who wrote on-the-ground reports from Haiti for the MTV Newsroom Blog in the days and weeks after January's devastating earthquake. She returned to the country this week with a medical team to set up a field clinics in the Central Plateau region and check up on patients in the capital of Port-au-Prince. With the rainy season about to start and more than a million Haitians still displaced, Smith reports that much work is still left to be done.

By Alison Smith

After a successful six days of clinic in the Central Plateau, our 13-person medical team saw over 1,100 patients in the makeshift clinic we set up. I departed from the group a day earlier to go to Port-au-Prince to see the city and the ongoing relief efforts. Over the last two months, I have relived the post-earthquake experiences over and over again in my head. I knew that I needed to see these sights again — to visit the hospital I worked in, to see how the city looks and to come to terms with the reality of the situation.

I was very anxious driving into the city from the Central Plateau. I was traveling with my Haitian friend Berteau, who was in Port-au-Prince during the earthquake (a fact he had not shared with me until we were inside the heart of Port-au-Prince). It was quite an emotional journey for him as he showed me the building he was standing in when the ground started shaking. He talked about how he had to run outside and was not able to contact his family in the Central Plateau. He slept outside in the street that night, enduring the numerous aftershocks and growing chaos that followed. He was then able to hitch a ride home to the Central Plateau the next day. He has since welcomed many refugees into his home and has taken on the responsibility of caring for many.

It was almost surreal being in Port-au-Prince again. Read More...

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Dispatch From Haiti: Issues At The Hospital

Posted 4/2/10 3:00 pm EST by in Haiti

Alison Smith is a medical student at Tulane University who wrote on-the-ground reports from Haiti for the MTV Newsroom Blog in the days and weeks after January's devastating earthquake. She returned to the country this week with a medical team to set up a field clinics in the Central Plateau region and check up on patients in the capital of Port-au-Prince. With the rainy season about to start and more than a million Haitians still displaced, Smith reports that much work is still left to be done.

By Alison Smith

Today we treated 200 people in a remote village in the Central Plateau called Savon Rouge. We came across a lot of very ill people with many diseases like tuberculosis, cancer and malaria.

I went to the hospital again to check on people we took yesterday and to bring over two more patients — one with potential metastatic ovarian cancer and one with a broken hip. We had to argue with the hospital administrator in order to get the free care that the poor patients are supposed to be provided. We were told by other hospital employees that they would not get any free care if we did not bring them.

We met one very sick man in town who had been at a psychiatric hospital in Port au Prince that had collapsed and he was the only one who survived. Last month, he killed a man who came into his mother's home to visit her. His family had to put chains on his hands to prevent him for hurting people. We went to see him and gave him some medication to calm him down and give his family some respite from caring for him.

The most frustrating aspect of today was when we were in the hospital we found a woman who was airlifted to the hospital on January 15 right after the earthquake. She was lying in bed in agony. She has a broken hip, an open ankle fracture and multiple other injuries that she sustained during the earthquake when a building fell on her. No care had been given to her since the earthquake because her family was still in Port au Prince. She had an ulcer on her back that had eroded the skin down to the bone. She was very emaciated and was very dehydrated. She was only 53 years old but the hospital refused to treat her because they thought she was older than 80. She was given minimal care from a hospital employee for the last few months who was trying to help her when he had time and money. Her doctor said that she needed to have better nutrition but since her family wasn't here it was very difficult to care for her. She was left sitting in bed to die.

We tried to do what we could to clean her up and bring her some clothes and blankets. We learned that she was a business owner in Port au Prince before the earthquake. We got information for her family and are going to Port au Prince tomorrow to try and find them.

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Dispatch From Haiti: Progress Slows, Problems Remain Great

Posted 3/31/10 3:10 pm EST by in Haiti

Alison Smith is a medical student at Tulane University who wrote on-the-ground reports from Haiti for the MTV Newsroom Blog in the days and weeks after January's devastating earthquake. She returned to the country this week with a medical team to set up a field clinics in the Central Plateau region and check up on patients in the capital of Port-au-Prince. With the rainy season about to start and more than a million Haitians still displaced, Smith reports that much work is still left to be done.

By Alison Smith

I am back in Haiti with a group I have put together of nine medical students and three doctors, two months after leaving from the earthquake-ravaged island. The situation is much more difficult, the people are much more sick and the challenges are even greater than ever before. Millions are homeless. The coordination of relief efforts has been met with roadblocks at every corner due to the lack of infrastructure and the corruption that runs rampant in every political sector.

Flying into Port-au-Prince, the once-barren hillsides are covered with tents and shacks constructed out of tarp. At first glance, the airport seemed much more organized than before, however this facade gave way as we ventured farther out into the masses of people. The city is still heavy with the stench of death. We brought hundreds of pounds of supplies to set up a makeshift clinic in the Central Plateau, the poorest region of Haiti.

The area did not have much structural damage, but the people here are feeling the effects of the disaster in the form of lost loved ones and an even greater lack of basic resources like food and water. We are working with a Haitian man who has done amazing work in creating opportunities for education and jobs in this very poor area. The root of the problem from the earthquake is that Port-au-Prince has been overwhelmed for decades by an influx of people from the countryside looking for better opportunities. The city infrastructure could not support millions of people.

In three days, we have seen and treated 600 people. We have seen so many frustrating situations where people are dying from lack of health care. We saw children with such severe bacterial infections that their skin was peeling off. We saw a woman who had breast cancer that was so far advanced that we could see it. I took a child to the hospital today with a severe pneumonia and undiagnosed sickle cell anemia and the doctors refused to treat him because his family couldn't afford to pay. I had to take them back to the hospital and pay in order for them to get treatment. It is so frustrating that Haitians continue to suffer while there is so much aid available.

Despite having been to Haiti five times before, the mysteries of this country continue reveal themselves in front of my eyes.

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BET's 'SOS Saving Ourselves: Help For Haiti'

Posted 2/5/10 8:32 pm EST by in Haiti

Tonight, in only the latest show of support from the recording industry for the people of Haiti following the devastating 7.0 earthquake last month, BET presents its own fundraising effort: "SOS Saving Ourselves: Help for Haiti."

The star-studded event, taking place at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, is airing on MTV, BET, VH1 and Centric, but you can watch the entire thing streaming live right here.

Hosted by Diddy, Queen Latifah and Pharrell Williams, the event is set to feature performances by Drake, Chris Brown, Justin Bieber, Nas, Ludacris, Robin Thicke, Mary J. Blige, Ne-Yo, Keri Hilson, Jazmine Sullivan, Busta Rhymes, India.Arie, Akon, Damian Marley and more. Wyclef Jean is set to deliver a special tribute to the Haitian people, while Pete Wentz, Gloria Estefan and Trey Songz are scheduled to participate. We're also getting inside word that the show will feature a number of all-star collaborations throughout the night.

Money raised during concert will go to organizations providing immediate relief in Haiti, including Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti foundation, C.A.R.E. and Project MediShare. George Clooney and MTV Networks' "Hope For Haiti Now" telethon was watched by 83 million people and helped raise more than $61 million. Tune in to "SOS Saving Ourselves: Help for Haiti" and continue to support relief effort in the struggling island nation.

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A Floating Lifeline For Haiti

Posted 2/5/10 2:30 pm EST by in Haiti

MTV News sent a team of reporters to Haiti to chronicle the recovery effort in the wake of January 12th devastating earthquake. We followed their journey via e-mails, tweets, BBMs and video. Reporter Suchin Pak sent us these recollections of her trip in advance of tonight's BET telethon, "SOS Saving Ourselves: Help for Haiti."

By Suchin Pak

?Just as the USS Carl Vinson, one of the largest aircraft carriers in the Naval fleet, left its port in Norfolk, Virginia, the earthquake hit Haiti. The supercarrier was among the first group of relief boats to arrive in the port of Port-au-Prince and it began its emergency relief mission immediately. The Vinson is like a giant city floating in the ocean, with thousands of military personnel and extensive medical facilities. This 24-story-tall ship became the most active airport supporting the Operation Unified Relief, the military's official response to Haiti. Overnight, it became the major hub for helicopters picking up and dropping off supplies, essentially functioning as a floating airport, with the capability to convert 400,000 gallons of sea water into drinking water through its giant desalination plant.

When you see this massive machine in action, it's hard to even imagine the magnitude of coordination needed to get immediate relief to the people on shore. Helicopters are flying in every 10 minutes, giant tubes are pumping in ocean water to be distilled and the ship's crew is on full alert. It's a constant hum of activity, day and night.

??Leslie Hubbel, a 31-year-old officer from Baltimore, described what it's like being a part of a military relief mission, saying that it's a very different atmosphere on board than in times of war. There's a sense of purpose and an intense camaraderie in knowing that everyone on board and every piece of equipment is being used to bring aid.?? A young coast guard member from New Orleans, Stephen Lehmann, 25, told me about a Haitian woman in labor who had been airlifted to the Vinson. The baby was born as soon as she landed, and she named him Vinson. You realize that most of the young crew on board have never been deployed overseas — that this is their first glimpse of military action, and for someone like Stephen, it's the most gratifying work he's ever been a part of.

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Money Saves Lives On The Ground In Haiti

Posted 2/5/10 12:45 pm EST by in Haiti

MTV News sent a team of reporters to Haiti to chronicle the recovery effort in the wake of January 12th devastating earthquake. We followed their journey via e-mails, tweets, BBMs and video. Reporter Suchin Pak sent us these recollections of her trip in advance of tonight's BET telethon, "SOS Saving Ourselves: Help for Haiti."

This is what humanitarian relief looks like first hand. Adonis Garcia is a firefighter in Miami and along with a few other members of his crew, Project Medishare has brought them to Haiti to hand out food and water and to help the doctors struggling with the masses of wounded in Haiti. Medishare is a Florida non-profit founded in 1994 by a pair of University of Miami School of Medicine doctors that has worked to provide modern healthcare services to the people of Haiti. We ran into this group by accident en route to a small hospital in Port-au-Prince and followed their mission.

It was literally park the bus, carry in the boxes, check wounds, give out water and food and back to the van to walk in more supplies. There's not a lot of time wasted, it's a really simple system and aid is immediate. Before we knew it, we were handing out water and Adonis was helping a seven-year-old boy with a severe hand injury, all in the span of about 30 minutes. I've been asked where all of these donations end up, and this is the answer. If there's any doubt that what we give here will end up making a difference, see for yourselves.??

This is a letter I received from Jenna Green, the team captain of Project Medishare's effort in Haiti.
Read More...

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On The Ground In Haiti: The Food Situation

Posted 2/5/10 8:45 am EST by in Haiti

MTV News sent a team of reporters to Haiti to chronicle the recovery effort in the wake of January 12th devastating earthquake. We followed their journey via e-mails, tweets, BBMs and video. Reporter Suchin Pak sent us these recollections of her trip in advance of tonight's BET telethon, "SOS Saving Ourselves: Help for Haiti."

By Suchin Pak

When you're covering a disaster like a hurricane or an earthquake, it's not like walking in to cover a political race. There aren't tents set up for you with Internet hook-ups, no catering tables or hot meals. In a case like Haiti, the mission is on emergency relief, 24-7. The military, as accommodating as they were, had no plan to house, feed and support news crews — and rightfully so.

You land in the middle of a disaster and the last thing you want to do is burden the people on the ground who have real missions with limited resources. We got bottles of water where we could, we slept where there was room and as far as a hot meal ... well, you'd be surprised at how little you really need to get by. The U.S. Joint Task Force had set up a constant flight rotation of helicopters that picked up and dropped off tons of relief to and from Haiti. When we hopped aboard a helicopter to fly a relief mission, we had to find seats wherever we could, wedging ourselves between pallets filled with relief supplies. Traveling on those missions was an incredible feeling.

There was a constantly active runway between Guantanamo Bay and the USS Carl Vinson, one of our biggest aircraft carriers docked just miles from Haiti and Port-au-Prince airport. No helicopter left empty, filled either with personnel or relief aid.

In the days just after the earthquake there were three items that were getting out the fastest: water, medical supplies and Meals Ready to Eat packs (or MREs). Each MRE has enough calories to sustain a basic level of health for one soldier in combat for one day, but there is enough food to make two small meals. You can eat the food straight from the pack or you can heat it up in an "oven" pouch which is activated by adding water.

For someone who has never seen an MRE, it seemed like a pretty complicated set up, but you quickly realize that when you're hungry, eating chicken tortellini straight from a plastic bag is good enough ... don't ask me to heat it in that portable oven. In the first week alone, the U.S. Air Force dropped more than 55,000 pounds of water and MREs from helicopters to designated areas in Haiti. As we were waiting for our flight back to the aircraft carrier in Port-au-Prince, I met a Haitian driver and a translator with a French news crew in the airport. As I was opening an MRE for lunch, I realized that they probably hadn't eaten or had water for quite a while. When I asked if they were hungry, they were quick to say yes.

I gathered up all of the MREs we had collected over the days and tried to explain how to eat one properly. Our crew had been chasing these stories in town and I never got to really sit and have a conversation with someone living through this and it was the most honest glimpse into how overwhelming the challenge will be. "Relief" means nothing if we don't continue to deliver aid to Haiti.

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Haiti: A Song Of Hope Rises From The Ashes

Posted 1/26/10 1:03 pm EST by in Haiti

Alison Smith is a medical student at Tulane University who has been posting frequent reports from Haiti to the MTV Newsroom blog. Today she talks about her conflicted emotions about leaving Haiti after nearly two weeks of tending to patients at General Hospital and the small signs of hope she sees in the chaos that has surrounded her.

By Alison Smith

I am getting ready to depart and it is very difficult. The needs here are different than when I first arrived. Most of the acute medical cases have been treated, but many people are coming back with fractures or open wounds that were not properly treated and now need more in-depth medical attention. We still have carloads and ambulances full of sick people, but the weakest are perishing en route to the hospital. This is going to be the continued situation for a very long time.

The General Hospital is finally functioning adequately. I worked all day yesterday in the radiology department, which was so chaotic. We secured another X-ray machine, but were still overwhelmed as equipment remains limited. Many of the volunteer doctors here are operating on an American mind-set and ordering too many tests, which is creating a backlog and preventing people from getting necessary exams done. I very much felt yesterday that it was time for me to step out. The Haitian doctors, nurses and technicians are returning to work and are having difficulty fitting back into the system that has been flooded with volunteers.

I tried very hard during the day to step back and not make the medical decisions, but the Haitian medical professionals, who are very proud and capable, seem to feel very self-conscious and slighted with all this foreign aid. We have many nurses and doctors (more than we need, in fact) and we are getting more volunteers from other hospitals that are overwhelmed with volunteers. Outside the walls of the medical facilities, people are rioting to get food, water and blankets. We saw many fights yesterday that had to broken up by the U.S. Army as hospital officials were only giving out relief supplies to their friends.

We have had numerous people come in with gunshot wounds as the police are shooting looters in the streets. Read More...

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